


A Touchable Dream

by spellingoutdesire



Series: In The Bedroom [1]
Category: Wet Hot American Summer (2001), Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp (TV)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-04
Updated: 2016-08-04
Packaged: 2018-07-29 08:56:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7678102
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spellingoutdesire/pseuds/spellingoutdesire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of shorts about Ben and McKinley in bed together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Touchable Dream

**Author's Note:**

> In which Ben watches McKinley sleep. Pure fluff.

Saturday February 6th, 2016

On Sundays Ben sleeps in until late. Every other morning he gets up at 5am to go work out. McKinley gets it, kinda, but he’d rather do yoga in the comfort of his own home or in the garden at sunset. 

For years it would wake McKinley up when Ben untangled himself to slip away to get ready. When they first moved in together McKinley would reach out to him and sleepily beg him to come back to bed. Over three decades later and Ben has long since perfected the art of gently lifting McKinley’s sleeping body off his chest and giving him a pillow to hug instead. 

This morning is different though. 

McKinley opens his eyes in the grey light of early morning and sees Ben sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. His eyes fall shut again as Ben runs his fingers through his hair.

“I love you.” McKinley smiles, too heavy with sleep to answer him. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

Ben leans down and presses a kiss against McKinley’s cheek, he hasn’t shaved in a couple of days so the kiss is rough and warm and it makes McKinley’s toes curl. He wants to wake up enough to pull Ben back into bed, to feel his rough beard against his throat, his stomach, his thighs. The bed creaks as Ben stands up and McKinley whimpers when the door clicks shut. 

Ben heads downstairs and pulls open the front door. He stands in the doorway, just for a minute, and he thinks about the man he loves asleep upstairs. Things are so good right now that he feels light and bouncy as he runs, exactly like he used to as a kid when he would run for no other reason than to go fast. 

Ben sings as he goes, he passes people too quickly for them to hear him, or so he tells himself. He sings a lot, actually, ever since McKinley said he had a lovely voice. _Somehow you've put a permanent star in my eye. Even the dead of Winter can feel like July_. 

 

“Hey you,” McKinley opens his eyes and sees Ben standing at the foot of the bed with a towel wrapped around his waist. Realising he missed an opportunity to join Ben in the shower is always absolutely devastating. 

“Drop the towel,” McKinley says with a grin. Ben walks around to his side of the bed and somehow manages to slip out of his towel and get under the covers without McKinley catching a glimpse of anything. Almost 35 years together and McKinley still feels like a teenage boy with a crush. “You’re such a fucking tease.”

Ben curls against McKinley and rests his head on his chest listening to the drum of his husband’s heartbeat.

“Sorry I woke you up this morning.”

“It’s okay, it was nice,” McKinley says, gently stroking Ben’s damp hair. Even with all the lines on his face he still looks so young, so tender.

“I watch you sleep most mornings, you know.” 

McKinley freezes. “I _didn’t_ know that.”

Ben lifts his head and looks at McKinley with wide eyes, “Is it.. is it not okay?”

McKinley can’t think of the right words for a second. Shit. “Of course it’s okay! I’m just… I thought I knew everything about you.”

“You _do_ know everything.”

“How long have you been.. watching me?”

Ben thinks for a while and then starts to smile. It’s not the answer McKinley is looking for but it’s more truthful. “The day we met, you did my makeup for the show, remember?”

McKinley laughs, “How could I ever forget?”

“Then you went over to the mirror to do your own makeup and you were concentrating so hard that you didn’t see me watching you. You were so beautiful, I couldn’t take my eyes off you.” Ben rests his head back on McKinley’s chest. “I still can’t.”

“So you, what, get up and then…?” His tone is soft but he wants to know. Needs to know.

“Yeah, I get up, brush my teeth, get dressed and then I sit with you for while. Just a few minutes. I mean, not every morning, sometimes I wake up too late.” He takes a deep breath. “I’ve been doing it ever since our first night... together.”

“On the floor of the Camp Firewood theater. We'd only known each other, what, 9 hours?”

Ben giggles, “All these years later and I still can’t believe I did that.”

“Says the man who spent last night with his legs --”

“McKinley!” Ben tightens his grip on his husband and it’s so nice, curled together on a Saturday morning when there isn't anywhere they need to be. 

“I just kinda can’t believe that this has been happening for decades and I never knew.” 

Ben doesn’t say anything and they drift together for a while. This is so Ben, to have a secret so pure and sweet that he could hide and not know that he was hiding. 

Ben remembers something, something that felt so important at the time that he can still bring it to mind like it was yesterday. “There was a night when our little one was small--”

“He’s in his 30s now, Benjamin,” McKinley teases.

“Well, ok then. There was a night when our son was small, not quite two years old, I came home from work and you were asleep together, he was lying on your chest and you had a hand on his back. I sat in the chair by the bed and watched you both breathing. Our life was so busy and stressful and hard. It was, I dunno, kinda lovely to see my family so happy and peaceful.”

“What happened next?”

“I got into bed next to you and I was so tired I fell asleep in my uniform. When I woke up you were in the kitchen singing ‘Let’s Hear it for the Boy’ while you fed him his breakfast.”

“I can’t believe you remember that.”

“Mmm. I keep all the precious things.”

McKinley feels a little like he might cry so he doesn't say anything for a long time. “So,” he clears his throat, his voice is still thick but Ben doesn't seem to notice, “do I look happy and peaceful when I sleep?” 

“Mm-hm. You’re so pretty when you sleep. You cuddle up to my pillow and your hair is so soft and the line of your back..” Ben trails off, running his fingers all over McKinley’s arms and chest. 

McKinley remembers that Ben is naked right now and that his muscles are hard from training. He used to be so lean when he was young and now he’s so solid and big and with that three day stubble he’s like a touchable dream.

Ben feels the shift, a change in the air between them. He presses a kiss to his lover’s throat and McKinley moans. He’s so easy but Ben isn’t complaining. He really does love Saturdays like these.

**Author's Note:**

> Ben is singing 'With You On My Arm' from La Cage Aux Folles because I love it so now he does too. The next short is set in the 80s and it's just pure smut, if anyone's interested.


End file.
